1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a maintenance unit that is used for maintenance of a liquid ejecting section and a liquid ejecting apparatus, such as a printer, to which the maintenance unit is detachably attached.
2. Related Art
As an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus, there is an ink jet printer, which is provided with a recording head for ejecting ink for printing, to which a waste liquid cartridge for collecting liquid that is discharged as waste liquid from the recording head for maintenance is exchangeably attached.
The waste liquid cartridge is provided with a storage element that is capable of writing and reading information related to the waste liquid, and a user can exchange the waste liquid cartridge at an appropriate timing by obtaining information related to the waste liquid that is read from the storage element (JP-A-2002-29065, for example).
Incidentally, if the waste liquid cartridge as described above is detached from the printer in the course of usage, it is not possible to obtain information that is written in the storage element without turning on a power source of the printer again and attaching the waste liquid cartridge. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is necessary to turn on the power source of the printer and attach the waste liquid cartridge, which requires time and efforts, in order to check whether or not the waste liquid cartridge in a state of being detached from the printer can be used in another printer.
Such a problem is substantially common to maintenance units that are provided with maintenance sections, the amounts of usage and validity dates of which are limited, and that are attached to and detached from the liquid ejecting apparatuses as well as the waste liquid cartridge that is exchangeably attached to a printer that performs printing by ejecting ink.